Part 8 (1/2)
Blades jumped erect. ”I can fight!” he growled.
”With what? Can openers?”
”You mean you're going to lie down and let them break us?”
Avis came back. She thrust the bottle into Blades' hands as he paced the room. ”Here you are,” she said in a distant voice.
He held it out toward Ellen. ”Have some,” he invited.
”Not with you ... you subversive!”
Avis brightened noticeably, took the bottle and raised it. ”Then here's to victory,” she said, drank, and pa.s.sed it to Blades.
He started to gulp; but the wine was too n.o.ble, and he found himself savoring its course down his throat. _Why,_ he thought vaguely, _do people always speak with scorn about Dutch courage? The Dutch have real guts. They fought themselves free of Spain and free of the ocean itself; when the French or Germans came, they made the enemy sea their ally_--
The bottle fell from his grasp. In the weak acceleration, it hadn't hit the floor when Avis rescued it. ”Gimme that, you big b.u.t.terfingers,” she exclaimed. Her free hand clasped his arm.
”Whatever happens, Mike,” she said to him, ”we're not quitting.”
Still Blades stared beyond her. His fists clenched and unclenched. The noise of his breathing filled the room. Chung looked around in bewilderment; Ellen watched with waxing horror; Avis' eyes kindled.
”Holy smoking seegars,” Blades whispered at last. ”I really think we can swing it.”
Captain Janichevski recoiled. ”You're out of your skull!”
”Probably,” said Blades. ”Fun, huh?”
”You can't do this.”
”We can try.”
”Do you know what you're talking about? Insurrection, that's what.
Quite likely piracy. Even if your scheme worked, you'd spend the next ten years in Rehab--at least.”
”Maybe, provided the matter ever came to trial. But it won't.”
”That's what you think. You're asking me to compound the felony, and misappropriate the property of my owners to boot.” Janichevski shook his head. ”Sorry, Mike. I'm sorry as h.e.l.l about this mess. But I won't be party to making it worse.”
”In other words,” Blades replied, ”you'd rather be party to sabotage.
I'm proposing an act of legitimate self-defense.”
”_If_ there actually is a conspiracy to destroy the Station.”
”Adam, you're a s.p.a.ceman. You know how the Navy operates. Can you swallow that story about a missile getting loose by accident?”
Janichevski bit his lip. The sounds from outside filled the captain's cabin, voices, footfalls, whirr of machines and clash of doors, as the _Pallas Castle_ readied for departure. Blades waited.
”You may be right,” said Janichevski at length, wretchedly. ”Though why Hulse should jeopardize his career--”
”He's not. There's a scapegoat groomed back home, you can be sure.
Like some company that'll be debarred from military contracts for a while ... and get nice fat orders in other fields. I've kicked around the System enough to know how that works.”